When Logic Fails
by CrowAggro
Summary: Ling Tong knew he had to escape, he was running in circles and chasing imaginary demons. He was running out of places to hide, and he knew he couldn’t keep up the ‘sane’ act for long.
1. Sub Zero City

Title: When Logic Fails

Summary: Ling Tong is suffering. He never realised things could go so wrong and he never knew he could feel so low. With his brother gone and his friends slowly leaving him, what will Tong do to escape the pain?

(A/N: This is **NOT** a suicide fic for anyone wondering, just so ya know :))

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot, gutted for me :D

A/N again!: (Ling Fe was actually one of Ling Tong's sons in real life, but for now I'm going to be using him as a brother for our favourite little DW drama queen in later chapters)

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He watched the world fly by leaving him to wallow in the shallow depths of confusion. From his window seat in the cold, cheerless classroom Ling Tong watched the world outside crawl by. The words of the tutors were lost on him as they failed to even reach his ears. Ling Tong had carefully, subconsciously created an invisible barrier, completely drowning out the world around him. The minutes crept by and the longer the lesson dragged on, the wearier he felt. Glancing at the clock he watched for a moment as the minute hand idly ticked by. Resting his head on his slender hands Tong sighed gently and pretended for a little while longer that he had something to go home too.

The bell had long since ended and yet it's shrill ringing still pierced his ears. Hands clutching the sides of his head Tong burst through the main entrance and hurled himself through the amassed crowds of college students, unaware of their startled cries he carried on running never once looking back. His heart thudded in his chest and pounded against his eardrums, he ran until he felt his lungs could burst at any moment and even then he pushed on harder. With a sickening crack Tong collided with a large, immovable object and bounced back landing on the floor with a resounding SMACK. The immovable object grabbed him roughly by the collar of his shirt and hoisted him up into the air, and with surprising ease held the dazed boy at eye level until Tong's eyes stopped rolling round in their sockets.

"Ling Tong just what the hell do you think you're doing?" An uncharacteristically stern voice questioned. Tong frowned and glared at the slightly older youth who still held him aloft.

"I was running. Something wrong with that bonehead?" came the snappy reply. The elder youth grinned and set his friend back down, one hand still gripping uncomfortably tightly on the smaller boys shoulder. He couldn't get away now, Tong realised he was going to have to talk his way out.  
"Listen Sun Ce I've gotta go. I've got stuff to do." Tong made to break away but Ce held fast. Concern clouded his normally carefree features, and a troubled look flitted behind his eyes.  
"Can't ya spare a couple of hours for your friends? Hell even a couple of minutes'd do us now, y'know? You're never around anymore, how come?" Tong opened his mouth several times, but words failed him, instead he found himself shrugging of the question and shaking his head, as if he didn't know.

"I guess," he managed eventually, "I've just been really busy. What with college and everything. It's hard to make time anymore." The taller adolescent released his grip on the younger boys shoulder and folded his arms tightly across his chest. Sun Ce let his eyes travel to the ground and he watched absentmindedly as he kicked at a cloud of dust around his feet.  
"The girls have missed you Tong. Especially Xiang. And so have the rest of us to be honest. It's almost like. . . It's like you've deserted us, just forgotten about us and ran away. Some have taken it harder than most. You know who I mean." Tong's face remained impassive, even when Sun Ce turned to leave without even saying goodbye. That was when he knew he had to say something, he had to have the last word.

"I didn't mean to." He blurted, instantly regretting it. Ce turned round and smiled sadly before waving him off. After a moment of crushing silence Tong stifled back a sob and carried on his way.

The Sun was setting and he wasn't home yet. He could feel the cool night air nipping at his exposed face, turning up his collar he buried his face as deep as he could behind it. He hugged himself desperately trying to fend off the icy chill stalking the night. As he shivered and his teeth chattered he watched with waning interest at the brittle mist escaping his mouth. He could feel the winter resting in his lungs, freezing him from the inside out. Staring blankly into the distance, unaware of where to go next or what to do he felt a single, solitary tear slide down his rosy, weather beaten cheeks. The tear froze before it reached his quivering chin and Tong knew then that he was in trouble.

With only a moments hesitation Ling Tong ignored all sense and reason and forced himself to walk. He had no idea where he was, had no idea how he'd got here, and he didn't know where the hell he was headed too. All he knew was that he didn't want to go back. The sharp, stabbing pain in his chest told him he couldn't go back. A pain that had nothing at all to do with the cold in the air. Bracing himself against the icy winds Tong continued through the sub-zero city and prepared himself for the endless night, wishing only that the darkness would steal him away quickly and without much more pain.

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Neko-Jin: Hope you liked it! This is my first DW fic so i'm still working out the kinks in the characters XD And don't worry, our favourite pirate **will** make an appearance soon! I bet you well thought it was him at first holding Tong! ;D

Thoughts, ideas, criticisms much appreciated! :3


	2. Blackout

Title: When Logic Fails

Summary: Ling Tong knew he had to escape, he was running in circles and chasing imaginary demons. He was running out of places to hide, and he knew he couldn't keep up the 'sane' act for long.

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot, gutted for me :)

A/N: [Ling Fe was actually one of Ling Tong's sons in real life, but for now I'm going to use him as a brother for our favourite little DW drama queen in later chapters]

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Blazing street lights flashed above him, serving only to illuminate the trouble he was in. He felt the panic rise in his chest, his heart fluttering madly beneath it's skeletal cage. Foreign walkways and strange buildings leered at him from every angle, he was wandering around in uncharted territory, he was basically a moving target. And he knew someone would just have to take a shot sooner or later. Thrusting his hands deep into his pockets he grabbed his mobile and flipped it open. With dead fingers he tried to dial in a number, any number, the first he could think of. Nothing. Wrong number. He tried again and again with no success. After several minutes of furiously jabbing numb fingers uselessly against the key pad Tong gave up and growled weakly in resignation. Strong hands spun the unsuspecting teen round, pain exploded behind his right eye and the world came crashing down around his ears in a flurry of darkness.

Then the rain came.

He shuddered as the cold and damp flooded his body and then quickly recoiled as a fresh wave of pain burst over his face. Clutching his eye, hissing and spitting in agony Ling Tong spent several long, tortuous minutes exploring the extent of his injuries tracing the bruises and swelling across his cheekbones lightly with his fingers. Forcing his one good eye open and squinting in the harsh but comforting sunlight, Ling Tong managed to haul himself to his feet using cold, damp wall as leverage. Hands pushing against the wall he managed to stagger forwards, delving further into the light.

Bursting onto the sunlit main road, startled pedestrians scattered like scared pigeons, and even when the shock faded they still avoided him. Shaking with silent rage Tong stormed down the path, ignoring the curious glances. More than once he shrugged off a concerned passer by, hell bent on . . . He didn't actually know. His legs stopped moving, rooted to the spot. Swaying gently in the icy morning air, long chestnut hair lashing his bloodied face Ling Tong had no idea where he was running to. Or even what he was running from . Bewildered tears threatened to surface, so when he reached for his phone and found it missing, the flood of angry, terrified tears came with a vengeance. And once the torrent began there was no way of stopping it. Clutching his head he folded up, shattered legs buckling beneath him.

Crashing to the ground in a downpour of tears and hurt he didn't flinch when the drenched floor soaked through his pants, and he didn't even notice when the sun disappeared behind thick, black clouds. And funnily enough, he didn't even care when kindly hands pulled him to his feet and guided him away from the desolate street with it's uncaring inhabitants, vicious thieves and night time assailants.

They asked him all sorts of questions, plied him with hot drinks and various sweet tasting foods. They sat him in comfortable chairs that he almost drowned in and offered him a dry change of clothes. An entire family fussed around him, fretted over him and tried to make him feel safe. They were nice to him, and yet Ling Tong couldn't help wondering if this was just another waking hell. Families didn't really act like this. They didn't welcome strangers into their homes, no matter how battered and bruised they were. They didn't laugh and joke amongst themselves. And they sure as hell didn't act as though they weren't even trying to paper over the cavernous cracks in their family's 'oh so perfect' façade. Families like this just didn't exist.

But if they did……It made Ling Tong sick to think how far his own family had fallen from grace. And he knew he was only making things worse. And the worst part of it all was, he knew he wanted to keep on running, and that no amount of midnight beatings and street attacks would change his mind.

Storm clouds obliterated the horizon and rain clouds blotted out the sun. The memory of that idyllic pretence of a family settled firmly in the back of his mind as he left them in the dust. He'd given them a false name and age, an imaginary address and for what? All so he could run away again and know they couldn't follow up on him, so they couldn't contact his parents, and ultimately so he wouldn't have to go back. But was this really the solution? Running as far as he could with no destination in mind, no money, nowhere to call his own where he could crawl back to and lick his wounds, and with no-one to turn to when he'd had just about all he could take. It wasn't ideal he reasoned, but it had to be better than home.

But when he really, honestly, _seriously _thought about it…. Home really wasn't that bad.

And this left him with one hell of a problem. Where did he go from here? He'd reached breaking point, he couldn't run anymore, he didn't want to run anymore. He was tired of never knowing where he was going and what he was running into. He just wanted to go home to a warm bed and a full fridge. But none of that was possible anymore. Not now.

His friends…..Ex-friends, they'd give him another chance. They might not understand, but they'd try and if he didn't say anything, and just turned up one day out of the blue, one of them would surely let him crash at theirs for a while. And if they didn't. If they didn't ever want to see his face again, if they wished Tong would just curl up and die…..

..….Then he really couldn't blame them. Because deep down inside, sometimes he wished he would too.

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Neko-Jin - WOW. This sure took it's time to come to me. I [vaguely] know where this is heading now and I [vaguely] know just how to get there. In a vague sort of way that is.

Reviews/criticism much appreciated.


	3. Broken

Title: When Logic Fails

Summary: Ling Tong knew he had to escape, he was running in circles and chasing imaginary demons. He was running out of places to hide, and he knew he couldn't keep up the 'sane' act for long.

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot, gutted for me :D

A/N: [Ling Fe was actually one of Ling Tong's sons in real life, but for now I'm going to use him as a brother for our favourite little DW drama queen]

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_He heard their bitter words thrown around in the heat of the moment crash through the walls. He heard their screams and their insults, and pretended none of this was happening. He didn__'__t need to watch them tearing into each other to know that this was probably the last time he, his brother Ling Fe and his parents would be ever be under the same roof again. A door slammed shut. He felt it bounce off it__'__s hinges and swing wide open again. Bracing himself against his bedroom door he refused to budge an inch, forced his eyes shut and ground his teeth together as if chomping on an imaginary bit. A harsh wind rattled the open window and sent chills down his spine. Another violent gust threatened to shatter the prone pane of glass. Leaping unsteadily to his feet he dashed across the bedroom, desperately avoiding the pitch black shadows already swollen with the notion of fear. Tripping in his haste he flung his arms forwards and crashed into the windowsill. Bracing himself for a moment, trying to regain his breath, the unfortunate soul just happened to glance down to the street several floors below. From his bedroom window on the seventh floor apartment he looked down on the world through already tired eyes. And what he saw only made him want to close his eyes and never wake up even more._

_The car, it came out of nowhere and his brother was too angry, too blinded by rage to see it coming. From his perch by his window, he watched the two collide and after a millisecond of man versus machine, the mangled flesh and bone came to rest somewhere on the road. For a moment the world stopped turning. People stopped, they froze, their brains trying desperately to comprehend the whole twisted scene in front of them._

_He didn__'__t even realise he was already running. _

Ling Tong stopped. Shaking his head he remembered where he was and forced past, painful memories towards the back of his mind again. Glancing around he quickly realised where he was, he was in the park. He knew this place, he'd pretty much grown up on this stupid little park with it's broken swings and the worlds worst slide. And he also had a fairly good idea where his subconscious was trying to lead him. Fists clenched and face set in grim determination Ling Tong charged towards the last person on earth he ever thought he'd be running too.

And he tried not to cry.

_He tried not to cry, he told himself there had been a horrible mistake. He was mistaken, he had to be! There was no car, it hadn__'__t been going too fast, it hadn__'__t even existed. It just couldn__'__t have. He flew down each flight of stairs, feet barely touching the ground. It occurred to him on more than one occasion that simply jumping would take so much less time. If he jumped all these tiresome flights of stairs he__'__d save so many precious seconds. But he didn__'__t. He just ran. Bursting through the main entrance after an age of hurtling down endless stairs he tore through the throng of bewildered and concerned passers-by and dashed onto the road. Picking his way through the carnage he followed the blood spatter and staggered over to the body. His worst nightmare made real._

_He fell to his knees._

Out of breath. He collapsed outside the wrought iron fence, panting, desperately fighting for breath. Steadying himself on the gate he shook his head and tried to ignore that old wound threatening to re-surface again. He wasn't going to run away again, not anymore. He was sick and tired of not facing anything head on anymore. He knew he'd crossed the line so many times before now, but he was tired of suffering through this living hell alone. He needed a friend. And he knew where to find one. He was stood outside their house after all. And yet he couldn't bring himself to knock on their door. He just couldn't do it. What if they didn't want to know, what if they pushed him away again. What if he ended up alone and ruined just like before? Tong wasn't sure he could cope if that happened. He was broken after all. But he thought he knew the one person that could fix him.

And that was enough to give him the strength he needed to try.  
Raising his fist, he pounded on the suddenly too tall door and held his breath.

_Falling to his knees he crouched by the bloodied mess and screamed. The twisted lump of flesh gargled something inaudible and raised a mangled arm. The boy recoiled as if struck by lightening. And then slowly, he raised his own arm and hesitantly reached out to the damaged figure in front of him. Their fingers connected and harsh reality dawned. In a frenzied panic he dropped to his knees still shrieking and embraced the remains of his best friend. His brother. He cradled his brothers body and wept uncontrollably, he begged and pleaded and prayed for him to pull through. Hysteria overwhelmed him and as the red and blue flashing lights bathed him in their awkward light he felt someone tugging at the corpse resting in his arms. Gripping the lifeless body even tighter, crushing it against his chest he buried his face in the rapidly fading warmth of his brother._

_Shaking with violent rage they tore them apart. He barely caught their kindly words and with complete disregard for their good intentions he fought against them. He lashed out and he kicked and he scratched and he bit them. He tore at their hair and their clothes, and they just took it. Unrelenting, he played on this new, never ending surge of anger he was now feeling and he fought tooth and nail to be by his brothers side. Until eventually they could hold him back no longer. He wasn__'__t really paying attention to the world around him anymore. So he didn__'__t really notice when the people in their clean, shiny coats took he and his brother from the cold, blood streaked tarmac and guided them gently into the back of the ambulance. He pretended to ignore the big, black bag they__'__d put his brother in._

_And Ling Tong didn__'__t__'__t even care when they slammed the doors shut behind them._

He opened the door.

And it was as if time just froze.

"Tong? Where the hell've ya been? We've been worrie-"  
"Please." He begged, tears of relief flooding his eyes, streaming down his face. "Please don't." The figure in the doorway appeared not listen, and instead swooped down and gathered Tong in a crushing embrace, holding him as though it were their last moments on earth.  
"Ling Tong I won't do anything if you don't want me too."  
"I know, I know you won't." Tong agreed. And for a long while after that silence governed and demanded no-one speak. And although to them time had simply stopped, the world around them carried on turning, and as the minutes turned to hours the sky darkened and the sun faded and dipped below the horizon. The stars began to filter through the night sky and everything in the whole universe seemed perfect.

For a moment past horrors just seemed like a faded old nightmare reawakened and nothing more. That the dreams held no real truth, and no-one had died.

"I missed you Ling Tong. More than you'll ever know." Whispered the only other person in Tong's life at that moment. And for a while, it was all Tong could do to keep himself from crying. Biting back the tears however, he managed to pull away from the bone splintering embrace and stare deep into quizzical hazel eyes with a genuine smile on his face.

"I really missed you too, Gan Ning." He said. "More than anyone will ever know."

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Neko-Jin - Oh my. Well this was interesting. I normally find flashbacks a bit of a pain in the arse, but once I'd mastered the 'italics' button, everything went along just fine!

This took me about 2 and a half hours of non-stop typing to write but I think it turned out very well in the end. I wrote it listening to a load of songs by a band called Trapt, they are awesome! Everyone should check them out :3

I know this one was quite sad, but I like to think it had a nice ending…For now! And what happens next? You ask! Well, you're just gonna have to stick around and find out ;)

And you all know the rest, read and review please!!!!!! Creative criticism very much appreciated. :D


	4. An Ugly Truth

Title: When Logic Fails

Summary: Ling Tong knew he had to escape, he was running in circles and chasing imaginary demons. He was running out of places to hide, and he knew he couldn't keep up the 'sane' act for long.

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot, gutted for me J

A/N: [Ling Fe was actually one of Ling Tong's sons in real life, but for now I'm going to use him as a brother for our favourite little DW drama queen]

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He sat in complete silence, grinning from ear to ear enjoying the warmth, barely watching everyone around him fretting and fussing around him. Someone forced a mug of something uncomfortably hot into his hands. Without even looking at what it was he sipped the drink before quickly setting it down, grimacing as the bitter taste settled over his tongue. He hated coffee. Sighing, he glanced at the mass of people crowding round him, waiting for them to settle down a little. His head was still spinning and sleep depravation was really beginning to take it's toll. He seriously considered taking another sip of the foul coffee.  
And then silence descended. He felt their eyes burning holes in his head, but he didn't know what to say to them. Luckily, Sun Ce's big mouth saved him.

"Tong, are you alright?" The sincerity of the question brought a small, sad smile to Tong's face. He nodded.  
"Where did ya go? If you had a fight with your parents or something why didn't you come stay with one of us? We'd have put ya up for a while." Gan Ning asked.  
"Only for a little while though mind. Whiny bitch." 'Ce added. Tong felt his grin widening, and before he could stop himself he was doubled over laughing. It must've been contagious because soon everyone else was in hysterics, even the normally icy Zhou Yu, and it was a good five minutes before anyone could speak.

"I couldn't face any of you, to be honest I thought you hated me. But I deserved it if you did. I haven't been much of a friend recently." The group mumbled several incoherent something's that Tong couldn't quite make out.  
"We never hated you Tong!" Da and Xiau chimed in, perfectly in sync. That was always something that had always weirded him out a little, but now it seemed sort of comforting. Sun Shang Xiang who had taken up residency next to him wrapped her arms around his shoulders. They'd always been close, and yet she was one of the first people he'd started to ignore, maybe for that very reason. He didn't know.  
"Ling Tong we never hated you, we were just worried. We tried to talk to you but you ignored us. If we rang you, you'd hang up, or if we saw you in the street you'd walk the other way. We thought you must have made other friends or something. Why did you run away? What on earth were you trying to accomplish?"  
"I don't know!" Tong shouted, suddenly angered. The group as a whole flinched, except Shang Xiang who remained defiant.  
"I don't know why I did it or where I was headed I just needed to get away. I couldn't stay with my parents and I couldn't ask you guys to just drop everything and come with me. So I thought the only thing that was left for me to do was go on my own."

"But what about your brother, Tong? He was moving out, couldn't you have moved in with him? "

He froze. A shadow settled across his heart and he felt his fists clench. He stared intently at the floor and remained silent, hoping the question would simply fade away and they'd ask him something else.  
"I haven't seen him around college recently, and he hasn't been turning up to English. Is he alright?" Zhou Yu enquired. Ce sat up and turned questioning eyes to Ling Tong who avoided everyone's gazes.  
"Yeah, come to think of it Ling Fe hasn't turned up to basketball practice for weeks." A couple of others nodded in agreement, and all of them seemed to silently reach the decision that something was seriously wrong here.  
"My brother's not here anymore. He, he went away. He isn't coming back." Tong said. He wasn't lying, he just wasn't telling them the whole truth. Shang Xiang's embrace tightened, Tong reached up and gripped one of her arms with his hands, tempted to rip free from her rib splintering hug. But he didn't.

"Where **is** Ling Fe then?" Zhou Yu asked, an edge to his normally calm voice.

Tong stood. He turned to leave, and froze. He had promised himself he wouldn't do this again, but he had been stupid to think he could handle all the questions.  
"I thought you weren't going to run away again. I thought you didn't know why you were running." Gan Ning asked. Tong turned his head slightly and stared at his friend. The guy who had insisted he call all the gang together and get them over here. The guy who had stood with him, holding him, because he was too scared to let go Tong go again. The guy who a long time ago once asked Tong out, the guy who he'd rejected because Tong was too scared of what his parents would do if they ever found out. The guy who had never given up on him.

_'Maybe_,' Tong thought, '_I could tell them_.'

Maybe they would understand.

Maybe . . .

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Neko-Jin - *gasp* another chapter! Not getting much feedback on this story but I'm trying my hardest.  
Maybe a few more comments would inspire me to write a bit more often *Hint* *Hint*!

Anyways, thanx fer readin'!


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